Why do sunsets look red?

During the evening, when the sun is near the horizon we may see a beautiful sunset.  The reds and oranges of a sunset are caused by the filtering action of the sky.

Sunlight, as we know, is made of many colors.  We can see the colors that make up sunlight when we look at a rainbow.  As sunlight passes through the atmosphere, the different colors are scattered by the air.

During the day, when the sun is directly overhead, its rays do not have to travel through as much of the atmosphere to reach the earth.  The sunlight is scattered in such a way that we see more of the blue rays.  But at sunset, when the sun is low in the sky, the light rays must travel through much more of the earth’s atmosphere to reach the viewer.

As a result, the shorter blue rays are soon scattered out and we can see more of the longer orange and red rays of sunlight – and we have a reddish sunset.  The red color of sunrise is caused the same way. – Dick Rogers

What Is A Puffball?

A puffball is a ball-shaped mushroom that gives off a puff of powdery spores when pinched.  It is a kind of mushroom growing in a field that looks very much like a round ball.

Anyone who has kicked a ripe puffball and watched the cloud of “smoke” puff out knows how the puffball gets its name.

Puffballs love sunlight and are often found in pastures on warm spring or summer days.  Most puffballs are only a few inches high.

The giant puffball, however, may grow to be 2 feet or more in diameter.  It is the largest of all mushrooms.

Puffball

The puffs or “smoke” that burst out when the ripe puffball is touched or squeezed is really a cloud of powdery spores being cast off.

Spores are tiny cells something like seeds.  They are so tiny that they look like dust.  A single puffball produces so many spores that it is not possible to count them.

Each spore may grow into a new puffballs plant if it lands on warm, damp ground ideal for its growth into another puffball.–Dick Rogers

How does A Plant Make Its Food?

Plant

Green plants make food in their leaves in a special food-making process called “photosynthesis.”

Green plants make food in their leaves in a special food-making process called “photosynthesis” (pronounced foe toe SIN three siss), a word meaning “putting together with light.”

A leaf manufactures food by taking carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil and changing them into simple sugars.

To do this, it also needs sunlight and green plant material called “chlorophyll.”  This name means “leaf green,” and is the material that gives plants their green color.

The chlorophyll uses the energy of sunlight to change the carbon dioxide gas and water into sugar.

Once the sugar is made, the plant changes it into starch and other foods it needs to grow.  To make some foods it needs minerals from the soil.

Some plants, such as mushrooms and mistletoe, have no leaf green, and cannot make their own food.  They must live on food green plants have made.–Dick Rogers

What is a rain forest?

A rain forest is a very dense and dark forest that grows in a land where the rainfall is very heavy.  A rain forest is a large, very thick forest in a land where rain is very heavy throughout the year.  The closely crowded trees need at least 80, and often much more, inches of rain each year.

Rainforest

Most rain forests grow near the equator.  Here it is warm all year round, and rain falls nearly every day.  The tall trees raise their leafy branches high above the ground.  The leaves are usually so crowded that little sunlight can filter through, and the forest is often dark.

The heavy rains wash much of the plant food from the surface soil.  As a result, the floor of a rain forest is often bare because smaller plants cannot grow in the dim light and poor soil.  Many people think of rain forests is jungles.

Jungle differs from tropical rain forests.  A dense carpeting of creepers, vines and undergrowth generally covers the ground in a jungle.  Some jungles have a few trees.  Dense jungles may grow in dry climates where rain forests can’t.  Jungles are among the least livable places on earth.  Poisonous plants, snakes and wild creatures live in them. – Dick Rogers